Life cycle assessment of Japanese high-temperature conductive adhesives

Environ Sci Technol. 2008 Apr 15;42(8):3084-9. doi: 10.1021/es0709829.

Abstract

The electrically conductive adhesives (ECA) are on the verge of a breakthrough as reliable interconnection materials for electronic components. As the ban of lead (Pb) in the electronics industry becomes a reality, the ECA's could be attractive overall alternatives to high melting point (HMP) Pb-based solder pastes. Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to estimate trade-offs between the energy use and the potential toxicity of two future types of ECA's and one HMP Pb-based. The probability is around 90% that the overall CO2 emissions from an ECA based on a tin-bismuth alloy are lower than for a silver-epoxy based ECA, whereas the probability is about 80% that the cumulative energy demand would be lower. It is more uncertain whether the tin-bismuth ECA would contribute to less CO2, or consume less energy, than a HMP Pb-based solder paste. Moreover, for the impact categories contributing to the life-cycle impact assessment method based on end point modeling (LIME) damage category of human health, the tin-bismuth ECA shows a 25 times lower score, and a silver-epoxy based ECA shows an 11 times lower score than the HMP Pb-based solder paste. In order to save resources and decrease CO2 emissions it is recommended to increase the collection and recycling of printed board assemblies using silver-epoxy based ECA.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adhesives* / toxicity
  • Bismuth* / toxicity
  • Electronics*
  • Environment*
  • Hot Temperature
  • Humans
  • Japan
  • Risk Assessment
  • Silver / toxicity
  • Tin* / toxicity

Substances

  • Adhesives
  • Silver
  • Tin
  • Bismuth